Posts Tagged ‘Abraham Lincoln’


Curtis Freeman on Undomesticated Religious Dissent

In the Bunhill Fields cemetery across from Wesley Chapel in London, there are three graves of prominent English dissenters — John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, and William Blake. Our guest this week, Prof. Curtis Freeman (Duke Divinity School), encountered these memorials a few years back and he was sent on a scholarly journey that investigated the role of “undomesticated dissent” in British and American history. He shares his findings and why a deeper understanding of these three writers are important for the context of democratic governance.

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John Wilsey on American Exceptionalism & Civil Religion.

Being the first constitutional republic in modern history, Americans have always believed their country to be exceptional and this has often mixed with explicit and implicit religious overtones. Prof. John Wilsey (Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary) explores the relationship between American exceptionalism and civil religion as it has evolved over time, with particular attention to the 19th century.

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Daniel Dreisbach on Abe Lincoln’s Religious Rhetoric

Being in the midst of the sesquicentennial of the US Civil War, we examine the religious rhetoric used by one of that era’s looming figures, Abraham Lincoln. Prof. Daniel Dreisbach of American University explores the religious phrases, themes, and cadence of Lincoln’s two most famous speeches — The Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address.

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Gary Laderman on Resting in Peace: The Death Industry in American History

Our annual Halloween show takes up the issue of the “death industry” in American history with Prof. Gary Laderman of Emory University. Gary discusses how our conceptions of death and funerals have changed over the past two centuries in American history, particularly with the rise of the funeral business in the late 19th century.

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Sean Scott on Religious Rhetoric in the US Civil War

As we are months away from the sesquicentennial mark of the end of the US Civil War, we devote this week’s discussion to the use of religious rhetoric in the War Between the States. Prof. Sean Scott, a historian of the Civil War era, covers the use of spiritual language in the various writings of “common folk” in “The Old Northwest” (i.e. Great Lake states and Iowa).

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Robert Delahunty on Alexis de Tocqueville and Religion

Prof. Robert Delahunty (University of St. Thomas) discusses the life and thought of Alexis de Tocqueville, particularly as it pertains to his views on religion and democracy. We discuss Tocqueville’s personal religious history and how this influenced his thought, as well as the observations he made with respect to the role of religion in a newly-formed democratic nation. Prof. Delahunty explores Tocqueville’s thoughts on church-state relations and the role of civil religion in comparison with Niccolo Machiavelli, and we reflect upon what Tocqueville’s observations recorded in America’s Jacksonian Era tell us about the role of religion in the U.S. today.

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Gary Scott Smith on Presidential Faith

A week before Presidents’ Day, we visit with Gary Scott Smith of Grove City College to survey the religious beliefs of a dozen or so presidents including Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, JFK, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama and a few others. Along the way we discuss why understanding the faith of our presidents is important, why most people do not know much about it, and how we go about studying the topic.

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